Personal (IR) Radar

[chris] sent in this inexpensive personal radar project. It uses a servo mounted IR range finder to locate and display the distance to an object. (Lake a parked car as shown in the demo video) The project is destined for some robotics projects – and who doesn’t love LED display proximity sensors. It makes me think of the direction finders in every other 80’s action movie. It’s gotten some attention on Digg, but I like it for the inexpensive build and the excellent use of a PIC 18F452.

Hello. I have done exactly the same, about one year ago and altough the name LIDAR (light detecting and ranging) was the same !!! It was based upon Pic16F628 but using a stepper motor, not a RC servo. I suggest to mount the sensor in the vertical way, because is much more accurate if you span horizontal way (see the sensor PDF). If you want take a look to the picture of my lidar version, this is the address: http://www.robotop.biz/images/lidar.jpg